Conclusion of My Study Abroad

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My study abroad experience was AMAZINGGGG, definitely the fastest 4 months of my life. I met a lot of awesome people, and it was sooo hard to leave. I wish I had been blogging consistantly throughout the 4 months, so I wouldn’t have to sum up my entire experience in one blog post :/ so to spare you from having to read the longest blog post ever. I’m going to sum up my abroad adventures with a bunch of pictures and brief highlights….here I go!:

London Highlights: Buckingham Palace/ Big Ben/ Seeing places where Harry Potter was filmed/ meeting my cousins for the first time/ meeting up with childhood friend/ post-olympic decorations still up/ stumbling across a random carnival.

 Switzerland Highlights: Skydiving/Hiking the Swiss Alps/ Renting a car/ Trying authentic Swiss Beer/ Visiting Interlaken, Grindelwald, and Geneva all in one weekend/ Drinking fresh water from a random cool log thingy in the woods.

Belgium Highlights: Seeing the Manneken Pis/ Eating in the Atomium/ Visiting mini Europe/ Meeting a travel buddy (a handsome one at that  Lol)

Italy Highlights: 1st Couchsurfing experience/ Best ravioli everrrr/ Trevi Fountain/ Colosseum/pantheon/ Vatican/Sistine Chapel.

Our Couchsurfer invited us to his friends birthday dinner, where we got a 3 course authentic italian meal! They were the sweetest and funnest people ever!

Couchsurfer showing us his “herb” collection that he grows himself lol.

 

 

Barcelona: Meeting Couchsurfer and getting to mess around with his DJ equipment and sharing our love for reggae music/ The architecture/ Sagrada Familia/ Halloween party.

 Amsterdam Highlights: Making new friends/ Heineken Museum/ Getting pickpocketed while being on public transportation for less than 3 minutes -__- ( not a good highlight lol)/ Visiting our friends dance class/ Medieval Torture museum (it was actually one of the most interesting museums i’ve visited.

Germany: Staying with my friend and her family (they were awesome!)/ Christmas market/ going to a kickback at her friends house/ Climbing 500 steps at Kolner Dom/  Eating authentic German food, and German beer.

Last but not least CANNES! It’s impossible to put my experience studying abroad in Cannes in a few quick highlights. The last 4 months were the funnest 4 months of my life, whether it was going to the beach on the french riviera everyday, partying every night for weeks straight, making friends with students from all over the world, living with the best host mom on the planet that cooked the BEST food; I definitely chose the best place in France to study abroad!

Shout out to my host moms!

A bientôt europe!!!

  • kelsey

    Hi! I am going abroad with AIFS to Cannes this summer! I was wondering if you had any advice/tips/ good restaurants/bars/ music venues, hidden treasures or really ANYTHING to tell me!! I cannot wait to go and I want to keep learning everything about it until I am finally there!

    • Alicia

      hey Kelsey! One thing I can tell you now is that you’re going to have a blast! I’m actually trying to go back there this summer (I applied for a job at the college). It’s an international college and you will make friends from all over Europe and be at the beach almost everyday (I heard the summer is the funnest time).

      Great places we went to
      Clubs:
      Baoli
      Les Marches
      The black pearl

      Pubs/Bars:
      Quays
      Morrisons

      Food:
      Cafe Roma (they have the best tortellni ^_^)

      I can’t remember everything now, but once you get there the other students will definitely give you the low down, but I’ll let you know if I think of anything else.

  • Molly

    Hey Alicia, I’m looking into going to Cannes next spring! I wanted to ask you about your experiences traveling! Getting to travel Europe is one of my biggest reasons for wanting to study abroad, was it easy for you to find the time to get away to travel? I’ve read that the International College has some strict attendance policies. And also, is there any advice in general you can give me?

    • Alicia

      Hi Molly, that’s awesome! You will definitely have time to travel, I traveled A LOT while I was studying abroad. We had a fall break where we had no classes for a week, and I did a lot of traveling then and on the weekends.

      The college is not as strict as it seems. We had a pretty crazy group and people would miss class often and it wasn’t a big deal. I honestly probably did no more than 10 hours of studying the ENTIRE semester, and A’s and B’s (I think one C too lol).

      My advice is to move out of your comfort zone. A lot of the Americans would hang out together, but I made it a point to branch out, make international friends and practice my french. :).